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Just a few weeks away from his crucifixion, Yeshua decided to reveal some secrets of the end times… that many believers still misunderstand today.
He describes that, in the end times, things will be as they were in the days of Noah and Lot — eating drinking, marrying — and includes the famous quote:
“whoever shall seek to save his possessions shall lose his life; and whoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” (Luke 17:33 [event 151 in The Chronological Gospels])
But then come the verses that so many people confuse, and from which many a rapture theory has been devised:
“I tell you, in that night there shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” (Luke 17:34-36)
To “their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16), many believers stop at this point, referring to these verses as “proof” of a pre-tribulation rapture, saying that being “taken” is to be caught up in the clouds with the Messiah.
However, what the Messiah says in the very next verse (Luke 17:37) completely dismantles this theory:
“Wherever the bodies are, there will the vultures be gathered together.”
If they would only read on, they would discover that those who are taken… are dead!Their bodies are vulture food!
It’s not those who are “taken” that are saved, it is those who are “left behind.”
The next time you read the Bible, try reading an entire book of it from beginning to end to get the whole context; context is everything!
And context includes chronology.
Without knowing the precise time that a certain event happened, it is often very easy to slip into mistaken thinking.
That’s exactly why The Chronological Gospels was created — to clear up centuries of misconception, simply by putting things in order.
You can read more about this story in event #151 in The Chronological Gospels (click here to get your copy).
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How about a FREE timeline of Yeshua’s 70-week ministry, PLUS a $20 coupon toward the purchase of The Chronological Gospels?
Obama administration officials have praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as someone with whom Israel can do business.
Yet he recently chose to do business with those committed to Israel's destruction.
Abbas struck a deal with Hamas making the U.S.-designated terror group part of a united Palestinian government.
Although that unity deal may soon be dead following Hamas's alleged kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, Abbas's initial embrace of the terror outfit raised serious questions about his commitment to peace.
Financing the Flames
"Peace doesn't have a chance because peace doesn't pay," said award-winning investigative journalist Edwin Black. "Because anytime that they want some income, all they've got to do is commit an act of terrorism."
In his latest book, Financing the Flames, the New York Timesbestselling author details how the Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists who have killed Israelis.
"As soon as a terrorist commits an act of terrorism against an innocent civilian in Israel -- whether that's cutting the throat of a child or stabbing a man standing at a bus or blowing up a building," Black said. "As soon as that man does that, he goes on a special salary from the Palestinian Authority, under Palestinian law -- a law known as the Law of the Prisoner."
The more Israelis killed, the bigger the financial reward.
"He gets a graduated salary depending on how heinous the crime is," Black continued. "If he kills five people and gets five years, he gets one salary. If he kills double that number and gets double the sentence, he gets double the salary. And so this actually incentivizes the misery, mayhem, and carnage that the terrorists commit."
Black told CBN News this is a long held policy. He spent time on the ground interviewing Israeli and Palestinian officials and found that the PA does not hide this cash-for-killers program.
"There's an entire ministry, called the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners, that actually oversees the distribution of this money and there is its counterpart in the civilian sector known as the Prisoner's Club," Black explained.
"Now this money constitutes some of the best salaries in the Palestinian Authority," he continued. "So you can literally go from poverty to wealth in the Palestinian Authority by committing an act of terrorism."
"This amounts to about 6 percent of the Palestinian budget," he said. "This money is paid on a priority basis. You can make as much as $3,000 or $4,000 a month while in prison just for committing this act of terrorism."
US Footing the Bill?
According to Black, some of the money can be tracked back to American taxpayers because the U.S. currently provides $400 million per year to the Palestinian Authority.
"There's a law against any of our money benefitting terrorism," Black said. "But in point of fact, approximately 6 percent of all the money we fund to the Palestinian Authority is probably diverted by them to fund terrorists' salaries."
"The money comes. It goes right to the prisoner. The prisoner signs a P.O.A. -- a power of attorney. He transmits that money to his bank account, to his lawyer, to his girlfriend, to his family, to his mother, to his organization," he explained.
"And this is the system we have in place. Our State Department knows it. Our administration knows it," Black told CBN News.
In the wake of Abbas's deal with Hamas, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced legislation that would cut funding to the Palestinian Authority.
The Obama administration, however, plans to continue engaging the PA -- meaning more terrorist salaries paid for, in part, by U.S. taxpayers.
"They would rather starve than see their prisoners, who are their heroes, go without remuneration for the acts of violence that they have committed against innocent civilians, homes, buses, trains," said Black. "It's an astonishment. And I think it's time for America to wake up."
“The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.” (Proverbs 19:23)
The abandoned Saint Elijah’s Monastery—the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq—located in the Nineveh Province, just south of the city of Mosul. (Photo: Doug/ Wikimedia Commons)
By Sean Savage/JNS.org
For most Westerners, Iraq is a foreboding and dangerous place that is filled with extremists and daily violence. Yet as little as 75 years ago Iraq was a vibrant country that was home to many different ethnic and religious minorities, including large Jewish and Christian populations.
But the latest round of violence spearheaded by the jihadist terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), which is driving through the heart of Iraq to the capital of Baghdad and inflicting medieval-style Islamic justice on anyone in its path, might be the last gasp of Iraq’s ancient Christian community, which faces extinction like Iraq’s Jewish community before it.
“Iraq used to be a beautiful mosaic made of many different faiths, including Judaism,” Juliana Taimoorazy, founder and president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, told JNS.org.
Like the Jewish people, the Christians of Iraq have a long and storied history that can be traced back to the very foundations of human civilization.
Most Iraqi Christians belong to an ethnic group known as the Assyrians. The Assyrian people consider themselves to be direct descendants of the numerous ancient Mesopotamian civilizations such as the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
“The Assyrians, also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs are the children of Sumerians, the original people of Iraq,” Taimoorazy said.
Mentioned numerous times in the bible from Genesis and onward, the peoples of Mesopotamia were key in formation of Judeo-Christian history. It is the land from which the biblical patriarch Abraham hailed. And later on, the Assyrians played a notable role in Jewish history, as they conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and expelled the Jewish people to Mesopotamia. That led to the creation of Iraq’s Jewish community, which continued until the 20th century. Additionally, the Mesopotamians’ successors, the Babylonians, were the ones who later destroyed the First Temple in 587 BCE.
Christianity was first brought to modern-day Iraq by Jesus’s Apostle St. Thomas during the 1st century CE, making it one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Christians formed the majority of the country’s population until the 14th century. The region’s Christians have subdivided since then into a number of churches, with the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East forming the largest denominations.
Today, the Assyrians are based in northern Iraq’s Nineveh plains, where they have fought to preserve the customs, culture, and languages of the area’s past, despite facing numerous waves of persecution, mass killings, and expulsions since the invasion of Islam in the 7th century CE.
“For hundreds of years Christians have been marginalized in the Islam-dominated part of the world. After the fall of Saddam the situation has been devastating for Christian Assyrians and other minorities such as Mandeans and Yezidies,” Nuri Kino—a Swedish-Assyrian Christian who is an independent investigative reporter, filmmaker, author, and Middle East and human rights analyst—told JNS.org.
“More than 60 churches have been attacked and bombed. Rapes, kidnappings, robberies and executions [are all prevalent],” Kino added.
Kino, who has been in constant communication with friends on the ground in Iraq, said that these attacks are all a part of daily life for Assyrians “who don’t have their own militia or any neighboring country to back them up.”
According to Taimoorazy, who has also been in regular contact with a number of people in Iraq, the situation has deteriorated rapidly since the jihadist invasion.
Taimoorazy said that “water and electricity have been cut, there is a shortage of cooking gas, clean water is running out and there is a fear of an outbreak of illness where the refugees have fled.”
“This is a complete disaster for the wellbeing of our nation,” she added.
Before 2003, it was estimated that around 130,000 Christians lived in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, but only about 10,000 remained before the recent ISIS invasion a week ago. Now, residents say around 2,000 Christians remain in the city. Many have gone to the surrounding countryside or to Kurdistan. Additionally, many are seeking to flee the country altogether.
The flag of the jihadist terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), which is driving through the heart of Iraq to the capital of Baghdad and inflicting medieval-style Islamic justice on anyone in its path. (Photo: Wiki Commons)
“Mosul is also very important for Christians, the prophet Jonah is buried there and also Abraham is supposed to be born in that part of Iraq,” Kino said,
“I have spoken to more than 20 Assyrian refugees [in recent days]. They are all saying pretty much the same thing: ISIS is a radical Sunni Islamic group who preaches and demands Sharia laws. That means that Christians have to pay a certain tax for protection, convert, or die,” she said.
The latest attacks are nothing new for Assyrian Christians and other minorities. They have faced nearly a century of continuous assault on their way of life.
“We lost 75 percent of our nation during the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocide from 1914 through 1918,” Taimoorazy said.
This has accelerated over the last decade, where nearly two-thirds of Iraq’s 1.5 million Christians have fled the country since 2003.
As the jihadist invasion continues, Iraq’s Christian leaders fear that this may very well be the end of Christianity in Iraq.
“After more than 2,000 years, during which we have withstood obstacles and persecutions, Iraq is today almost emptied of its Christian presence,” Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Saad Syroub of Baghdad said in an interview with the international Catholic charity group Aid to the Church in Need.
“We fear a civil war. If the various different opposing internal parties do not succeed in finding an agreement, then we must expect the worst. Another war would mean the end, especially for us Christians,” added Syroub.
The modern persecution and expulsion of Iraq’s Christian and other minorities draws many parallels to the waves of attacks on and eventual expulsion of Iraq’s Jewish community during the mid-20th century, when nearly 135,000 Jews were forced to leave from 1948 onwards. Overall, nearly 900,000 Jews were expelled from their homes across the Middle East, many settling in Israel, Europe, and North America.
Similar to Iraq’s Jews, who were targeted for their success and accused of supporting Israel, Christians in Iraq are also being targeted for their relative success and supposed ties to the West, especially the United States.
“The history of Jews and Christians in the Muslim dominated part of the world goes hand in hand. Massacres and atrocities to the members of the two religions have been going on for centuries,” Kino told JNS.org. “It is very sad that the colorful and very cultivated Jewish community of Iraq vanished.”
For Iraqi Christians—as well as those in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and elsewhere in the Middle East—their ancient communities may soon also vanish, as many flee for safety in Europe and North America.
“At the current rate, with the mass exodus which is being witnessed by the world, the number of Christians left in the Middle East will be slim to none,” Taimoorazy said.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/17228/like-jews-iraqs-christians-may-face-extinction-jihadist-invasion/#WHwr3PbeM2u6oGvO.99
“Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.” (Psalm 119:152)
Sidonian burial caves at Beit Guvrin (Photo: WikiCommons)
The Beit Guvrin caves and the ancient town of Maresha in central Israel have been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a heritage site this week during its 38th World Heritage Committee in Doha, Qatar.
The man-made caves, known for their unique ‘bell caves’, represent the “land of a thousand caves” in the Judean lowlands, scattered over an area of about 100 square kilometers.
The Beit Guvrin and Maresha caves join the White City of Tel-Aviv, the Biblical Tels of Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba, the Incense Route and Desert Cities in the Negev, the Bahá’i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee, Masada the Old City of Acre and the Carmel caves as the eighth site to be recognized as a UNESCO Heritage site in Israel.
The World Heritage List includes 1,001 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.
The caves at Beit Guvrin (Photo: Wiki Commons)
Dr. Zvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist of Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, stated after the announcement: “We are delighted that our professional opinion to declare the caves of Beit Guvrin as a World Heritage Site has been adopted by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO. Much work has gone into preparing the case by officials and many others, which has eventually led to this success. Thanks to the large number of caves and their various types, as well as the duration for which they were used, spanning nearly 2,000 years, this special site has won recognition as an outstanding site of global value. ”
UNESCO crowned the Beit Guvrin caves as ‘a Microcosm of the Land of the Caves’: “This ‘city under a city’ is characterized by a selection of man-made caves, excavated from the thick and homogenous layer of soft chalk in Lower Judea. It includes chambers and networks with varied forms and functions, situated below the ancient twin towns of Maresha and Beit Guvrin, that bear witness to a succession of historical periods of excavation and usage stretching over 2,000 years, from the Iron Age to the Crusades, as well as a great variety of subterranean construction methods. The original excavations were quarries, but these were converted for various agricultural and local craft industry purposes, including oil presses, columbaria (dovecotes), stables, underground cisterns and channels, baths, tomb complexes and places of worship , and hiding places during troubled times.
The ancient town of Maresha and Bet Guvrin are two main sites in a larger area of caves and hiding that existed just off the Via Maris during the Byzantine period. According to evidence produced by Prof. Yoram Zafrir, over 100,000 people lived in this area away from the main trade route. The main urban settlements in the Judean foothills were safely removed from the main Via Maris with its movements of conquering armies between Egypt and the Fertile Crescent. Maresha and Bet Guvrin, important ancient cities located in the basin of the Guvrin Stream, were highly populated in the Greco-Roman and Byzantine eras, and their unique natural formations were used as hiding places for the local population in conjunction with tels and neighboring towns. Maresha is mentioned among the cities of Judea noted in Joshua and as one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam against the incursion of Babylon into his kingdom: ‘And Rehoboam… built cities for defense in Judah. He built even Bethlehem…and Mareshah.”
During the Persian period, after the destruction of the First Temple, Maresha and all of southern Judea was settled by Edomites, who came from the southeast. At the end of the 4th century B.C.E. Sidonians and Greeks came to Maresha, bringing the Hellenistic culture with them. In addition, isolated Egyptians and a few Jews lived there – refugees from the fall of the Temple and emigrants from the Coastal Plain. Thus was created the special fabric of society in this Hellenistic city, which was an important economic center.
During the same period, the Lower City was built, and in it many caves were hewn. From historical sources and local excavations it became evident that in 113 BCE John Hyrcanus I, the Hasmonean, conquered Maresha and converted the residents of the city and its surroundings to Judaism. The upper and lower city became desolate ruins. However, Maresha recovered and was repopulated, but its settlement was sparse, and according to Josephus Flavius, it was finally demolished by the Parthian Army in 40 BCE.
Bell Cave (Photo: WikiCommons)
Beit Guvrin replaced Maresha as the most important settlement in the area. It is initially mentioned by Josephus Flavius in 68 CE as one of the towns conquered by the Roman general Vespasian. Following the destruction of the Second Temple, it continued to exist as a rather crowded Jewish settlement until the Bar-Kochva Revolt, 132-135 CE. Emperor Septimus Severus changed Beit Guvrin’s name to Eleutheropolis (“City of the Free”) and granted it municipal status. Two aqueducts brought water from afar, and together with local waterworks, supplied the needs of the residents.Besides swellings, the city boasted an amphitheater and public buildings.
The Jewish settlement was rehabilitated, and in the 3rd-4th centuries, Beit Guvrin was mentioned in the Talmud and Midrashim – Commentaries on the Scriptures – and by its sages. From the Roman and Byzantine periods, a large Jewish cemetery and architectural remains were discovered, as was a synagogue inscription. During the Byzantine period, Beit Guvrin was an important center of Christianity with a number of churches. Most of the bell caves were dug during the Early Muslim period, and findings from the Crusader period indicate that it was a small fortified city, at the hub of which was a church dedicated in 1136. The city was surrounded by Crusader villages, and apparently the Church of St. Anne was restored at about the same time.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/17223/millenia-old-caves-israel-declared-unesco-heritage-site/#M7XyuexdvXw0z02L.99
Blood Moons, the Shemitah and Prophetic Implications We Can't Ignore
A blood moon viewed through the wall of Damascus gate in Jerusalem's Old City during a total lunar eclipse, June 15, 2011 (Reuters)
Israel is appropriating $29 million to help farmers observe a critical agricultural commandment from the Mosaic law, according to WND.
That commandment instructs the Israelites to give the land a rest from all agricultural activity once every seven years.
In the Torah, the Sabbath concept isn't limited to the seventh day of the week; it also applies to every seventh year—also known as the Shemitah year.
The $29 million in funding is headed to Israel's Religious Affairs Ministry, which will spend the money encouraging and enabling Jewish farmers who wish to follow the command.
Though farming regulations may seem insignificant to Western eyes, it was in part Israel's original failure to observe the resting years that resulted in the 70-year exile (2 Chronicles 36:20-23)—a seven-decade "Sabbath rest" for the land.
The Sabbath year command has not been observed in any real official capacity since A.D. 70, when God judged the nation of Israel for rejecting the Messiah, Jesus Christ, about 40 years earlier.
Biblically, while Israel may once more seek to observe the ordinance, the Jewish people remain in spiritual exile (Romans 11:7-11, Acts 28:25-28) because they rejected the Messiah's true Sabbath rest for the soul (see Hebrews 4).
The move on Israel's part may be critical as the nation navigates through events surrounding blood moons occurring in 2014 and 2015, which may be prophetically significant.
In the book of Joel, the prophet writes, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (2:31-32). At Pentecost, the Apostle Peter quotes that passage in reference to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now, many are connecting that same passage to a new end-times move of the Spirit preceding Christ's return—whenever that may be.
The question is: why Israel's revived interest in the law? Is it drawing closer to seeking God's will just as when King Josiah rediscovered the law in 2 Kings 22? Or is it instead keeping God "on their lips" but far from their hearts as they "seek to establish their own righteousness"—not knowing that the whole point of the law is to be fulfilled in the righteousness given freely through the Messiah (Romans 10:3-4)?
The unusual tetrad of lunar eclipses correspond with Jewish feast dates, beginning with Passover of April 2014 and ending with the Feast of Tabernacles on September 28, 2015—around which time Israel will celebrate the end of the Sabbath year.
The Jerusalem District Court has ordered Moshav Yad Hashmonah, a community of Messianic Jews and Evangelical Christians, to pay compensation to two lesbians after it refused to host a same-sex wedding. "We knew we were breaking the law. Somebody needed to do it." says Ayelet Ronen, general secretary for the village.
Judge Moshe Yoad Cohen upheld a lower court ruling that the Moshav violated a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
During the trial, representatives of the Moshav quoted from both Old and New Testaments. "We do not hate homosexuals or lesbians. We love them. We simply told the court that it is God's word in the Bible that calls homosexuality an abomination," Ronen told Israel Today.
She continues: "As a faith-based community we need to be able to refuse events that blatantly oppose our religious beliefs. We explained to the judge that a same-sex celebration would ruin our business. The majority of our clientele are Christians who vigorously oppose gay marriage."
The lesbians' lawyer accused members of Yad Hashmonah of "homophobia," pointing to an announcement published by the Moshav that "no homosexual or lesbian organization will be allowed to rent space for functions on our premises."
That announcement came in response to a flood of requests for same-sex celebrations on the Moshav from gays and lesbians hoping to pass more court decisions requiring the Messianic community to pay out huge compensations.
As a result, the Moshav was forced to shutter their events-hosting business, resulting in huge financial losses. "We used to host an average of 35-50 weddings a year over the past 12 years. Israelis from all over the country, religious and secular, loved to come here. Now there are none," says Ronen.
Judge Cohen held that the Moshav cannot refuse to host a same-sex wedding reception even if doing so goes against their own conscious. The Moshav's lawyer, Michael Decker, challenged that ruling, asking the judge, "What if a Catholic went to an Orthodox Jewish carpentry in [the ultra-Orthodox town of] Bnei Barack and asked them to build a statue of Mary? Would they have to build the idolatrous image?"
The judge replied: "They would have to make it or else be fined. That is the law."
Ronen says that the ruling demonstrates that "even the judge understood that current laws are not providing sufficient protections for religious communities."
According to Ronen, "a lot of religious Jews and rabbis have secretly told us 'good for you. We are glad that you take this stand.' But they will not stand with [Messianic Jews] to change the law. They hate us too much and would never work with us."
In his ruling, the judge upheld the earlier verdict of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, ordering Yad Hashmonah to pay the two lesbians damages of 60,000 shekels ($17,000) plus another 30,000 shekels for attorneys' fees for both the original suit and the appeal. "At this time we are not planning another appeal. To lose again would not sound good," says Ronen.
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Love For His People Editor's Note:
I have stayed several times at Yad Hashmonah, while the US Director of Vision for Israel from 2005-2010. It is a beautiful site, and we tremendously enjoyed the scenery and the closeness to Jerusalem. We pray the Lord will give them new vision and new income, as they seek Yeshua HaMashiach in all that they do. We applaud them for their courageous and honorable stand for truth.
Steve Martin President Love For His People, Inc.
The Founders of Yad Hashmonah
The founders of Yad Hashmona were Bible believing Protestant pioneers from Finland. In 1971 they registered as a legal association in Israel. Three years later they moved to the site to begin building and developing the stony area. During the 1960’s, they had worked as volunteers in different Israeli kibbutzim, where they learned about the communal lifestyle which they later adapted at Yad Hashmona.
As believers in the fulfilment of biblical prophecies, the Finnish pioneers desired to contribute their share to the Zionist movement in Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. They also wished to express their gratitude to the God of Israel, who blessed all the nations with the gift of the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).
The Name
“Yad Hashmona” means Memorial to the Eight. Sometimes it is written as Yad Ha8. The name was given by the founding settlers in memory of eight Jewish refugees, who escaped in 1938 from Austria to Finland, and who were surrendered by the Finns to the Gestapo in November 1942. It was a time when the Finnish government collaborated with Nazi Germany in opposition to the Soviet Union, in an attempt to recover the Karelia region - which Stalin had ‘stolen’ from the Finns in the “Winter War” of 1939/40.
The eight refugees were taken to Auschwitz, where seven of them were murdered. The lone survivor, Dr. Georg Kolman, who lost his wife and baby son in the extermination camp, made aliya to Eretz Israel. The Finnish founders of the Moshav wished to somehow atone on behalf of their nation for the surrender of the eight to the Nazis, and they viewed their contribution to the Land of Israel as a public request for forgiveness.
Notwithstanding the Finnish government’s refusal to surrender all of their Jewish citizens to the Germans, the action taken on Finnish soil against the eight Austrian Jews remained a heavy burden on the Finns’ conscience. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until November 2000 that the Finnish government and Church leaders dedicated a memorial to the eight in Helsinki. A monument was erected in the Observatory Hill, opposite Helsinki’s South Harbour, from where the refugees embarked on the death ship SS Hohenhörn. In the presence of representatives of the Jewish community in Finland, the Prime Minister, Paavo Lipponen, begged the forgiveness of the entire Jewish people.
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